The disconnect is alive and well between business and life. I really think that business people actually have to turn it off once in a while so that they can remember the human aspect of interactions. Life is NOT one big marketing event. We are not products to be launched and accepted by an audience. As a matter of fact, in today’s world, the product audience doesn’t seem to much care for anything with any level of sustained fervor. That’s why marketers and advertisers are always looking for the next slick campaign with which to peddle their wares. But not everything fits into the “wares” category. There is a large portion of the world-wide interactions that have little to do with the limited scope and cycle that accompany typical product launches.
The Occupy Together movements that are happening around the world are one such social interaction. And that’s the key: social. I see repeated (well-meaning, I hope) attempts at “helping those poor misguided souls” to better attain their goals. But perhaps those who want to provide these lessons, which work well in a business world of limited focus, are not seeing the big picture that has an underlying deeply focused message. And to get to this message, it means taking off the blinders that are necessary for working in a two-dimensional world so that you can see that third dimension: PEOPLE and their well-being.
It’s not about selling a message, but selling a vision which takes much more than a simple poster, website, and slick business cards. Life has become an extension to the business world, because so many people think that capitalism is tantamount to a faith. Well, it’s not. It is an economic policy, just as this Tweet shouts out:
The one thing that Big Business (and many times small) is guilty of is to not view the humans working in their environment as anything more than resources working for a fiscal goal. Viewing your surroundings in such a two-dimensional way means that you’re missing out on a whole level of your environment that is based on much more than tangible opportunity for bigger returns. Intangible, touchy-feely stuff is what makes the world go around. The one thing that advertising gets more than marketing is that emotions connect us all on a gut level and drive our actions. This is the case with the Occupy Together and other world-wide people’s movements/revolutions.
You can’t address all of the wrongs in the world with a simple marketing campaign. It’s impossible at the moment because this situation took decades to make (or should I say break) and involves each and every one of us. It will take every discipline taking this conversation seriously and researching the systematic flaws, so that we can create a new system that will work for us all in an ethical and responsible manner. And that won’t work by simple “marketing tips“. It’s going to require much, much more.
[Note: When someone makes a point in a conversation that disagrees with your views (perhaps because it seems vague to you), it really doesn’t help to tell that person that their point isn’t valid. This is the old business method, and it has proven ineffectual for centuries because it is too constricting. Every point could have a valid idea, and should not be discarded without careful consideration first. The study everything method is used in scientific studies, and perhaps this is why the science world is centuries ahead of business studies? Just a thought…]
Please, people, take off your business hats and start listening with your hearts and feeling with your souls. This is not about competing ideologies (we’re still flogging that dead horse). It’s about having and considering ideas for all of us to have a future full of hope.
Does this sound like a simple movement now (all of these movements are connecting around the world):
And there are many more “professional” voices everywhere who are joining in with this call for equality, so that we can all find opportunity for this world and ourselves. People connecting for something bigger than themselves.
This man offers a great starting point for this unknown path we walk:
BRAVO!!! This is what happens when humanity comes together for the common good of us all.
And here’s a little food for thought from Umair Haque‘s latest post: The Missing Link
